Nuclear Watch New Mexico (NukeWatch) can continue to pursue its lawsuit against the Energy Department and its former Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) contractor for failing to do certain tasks spelled out in a 2005 consent order, but a federal judge won’t throw out a revised 2016 settlement between DOE and the state of New Mexico.
That’s the upshot of the 37-page decision issued July 12 by Albuquerque-based U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera. The ruling also preserves the viability of financial penalties against the defendants.
The May 2016 suit claimed the deadline for 13 cleanup tasks spelled out in the 2005 consent agreement between DOE and the New Mexico Environment Department was extended by the state agency without good cause. These include submission of various reports on environmental monitoring, completion schedules, and issues which precede actual cleanup. The 2005 settlement was meant to hasten remediation of Los Alamos area contamination dating to nuclear weapons research in World War II.
Daily penalties for failing to complete the work started as early as June 2014 and today total more than $300 million NukeWatch New Mexico said in a Monday press release.
Frustrated by delays in milestones outlined in the original 2005 consent agreement, NukeWatch New Mexico used the citizens suit provision of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and filed a notice of intent to sue in December 2015. The actual lawsuit was filed in May 2016. The state agency intervened in the case in June 2016, around the time DOE and NMED executed their new 2016 order.
The 2005 consent order called for 80 specific remedial tasks over 10 years, although the agreement said DOE, the contractor, and the state could seek a deadline extension with good cause.
The Energy Department and NMED did not respond to a request for comment by deadline. The affected parties have 14 days to file appeal motions, which could be followed by a status conference and an evidentiary hearing.
